{"id":212496,"date":"2026-07-18T17:37:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T17:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/212496\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T17:37:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T17:37:20","slug":"palestine-demo-demands-andy-burnham-stops-labour-support-for-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/212496\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestine demo demands Andy Burnham stops Labour support for Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tLabour<\/a><\/p>\n

Good riddance to Keir Starmer\u2014but keep up the fight for a free Palestine <\/p>\n

By Socialist Worker journalists <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDownloading PDF. Please wait…<\/p>\n

Saturday 18 July 2026<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tIssue <\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\"On\"On<\/p>\n

On the 36th national demonstration for Palestine (Picture: Guy Smallman)<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of London on Saturday for the 36th national Palestine demonstration.<\/p>\n

They celebrated Keir Starmer\u2019s downfall\u2014and demanded that new Labour leader Andy Burnham<\/a> stops supporting Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shaheda came to the demonstration with her sister and children from Reading. She told Socialist Worker, \u201cWe have a new prime minister and he needs to know that we haven\u2019t gone away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not the time to stop protesting. We need Palestine in everyone\u2019s minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mick from the Midlands agreed. When asked if he thought Burnham would change Labour\u2019s stance on Palestine, he told Socialist Worker, \u201cWe hope that if we can bring enough pressure, he\u2019ll be different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he won\u2019t be different just because he\u2019s Burnham\u2014we\u2019ve got to force him to be different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corto, a member of the French left wing LFI party living in London, was less hopeful. \u201cI think Burnham might talk a bit better about issues than Starmer, but they come from the same political machine,\u201d he told Socialist Worker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe he\u2019s going to shift a little because he can feel the pressure, but I think it\u2019s going to be mostly the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some protesters already have demands for Burnham. Michael told Socialist Worker, \u201cHe has to impose sanctions and impose an arms embargo on Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd crucially, as prime minister, will he make sure that the Palestine Action ban will be lifted? That will be a real test for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least a dozen Unite union members on strike at the Institute for Cancer Research (ICR) joined the march.<\/p>\n

Aiden, a Unite union rep at the ICR, told Socialist Worker, \u201cI\u2019m here today to stand in solidarity with Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for trade unionists to be involved in the struggle for a free Palestine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to struggle on the picket line, the same as we have to struggle for Palestine.\u00a0We live in hope that we can fight and win on both fronts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danny, another ICR striker, agreed, \u201cThe mood in my workplace is overwhelmingly in support of Palestine. It gives me hope to see so many people here today, standing up and speaking out for the people of Palestine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at Marxism Festival a few weeks ago. It was inspiring to be in a space with so many people who were united in a common cause and it feels like that again today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Danny emphasised that \u201calthough there\u2019s a new prime minister, I don\u2019t expect any better from Burnham\u201d. \u201cHe\u2019s not signalled that there will be any significant departure from what Starmer was doing,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Striker Jamila said, \u201cBosses won\u2019t pay workers a wage that we can live on. But, at the same time, they\u2019re always able to find money for more war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faisa from Derby thinks multiple forms of protest are necessary to ramp up the pressure. She told Socialist Worker that she\u2019d set up a Palestine solidarity group locally and some 20 activists had travelled down on Saturday.<\/p>\n


\n \"Labour\u2019s\"Labour\u2019s <\/a><\/p>\n

Burnham promises change, but can he deliver?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOur group has been part of protests outside the UAV Engines factory in Shenstone,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

UAV Engines is owned by Elbit systems, Israel\u2019s largest weapons manufacturer. They build engines that power Israeli drones.<\/p>\n

Faisa added, \u201cBlocking the factories where these weapons are made is important. That is shutting down the war machine and hitting those who make a profit from killing children.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the rally Palestinian ambassador to Britain, Husam Zomlot, said that Burnham\u2019s apology for Labour\u2019s inaction over Palestine is \u201can important step\u201d. But he added that we must now \u201cdemand action\u201d from him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNumber one, all the ICC arrest warrants must be upheld. Benjamin Netanyahu must be arrested.\u00a0 Stop all arm sales to Israel. Sanction Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sukaina Rajwani is the mother of Fatema Zainab, imprisoned as a terrorist last week as part of the\u00a0Filton 25<\/a>\u00a0group of non-violent direct actionists.<\/p>\n


\n \"Picture\"Picture <\/a><\/p>\n

State repression will not silence the Palestine movement<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

She told the crowd, \u201cOn Friday 12 June, judge Johnson sentenced Palestine Action direct actionists as terrorists. My daughter Fatema Rajwani Fatima was one of them. Their crime? Protesting against the Israeli military.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time in history, they were sentenced for a crime they were not tried for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter is only 21 years old. She has spent almost 10 percent of her life behind bars.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the British state ramps up repression, a key task is building mass support for those bearing the brunt of Labour\u2019s authoritarianism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Support the Filton 25 and Brize Norton\u00a0VI<\/a>\u2014organise union, workplace and campaign meetings and invite people from the campaigns to speak.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s fight to force the Labour government to stop all arms sales to Israel, impose sanctions and cut all ties with the terror state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Diary dates\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has called a national demonstration at the Filton arms plant, near Bristol, this Thursday, 23 July.<\/p>\n

Coaches are going from London, Cardiff and Newport in South Wales, Bridport and Dorchester in Dorset and Walsall and Birmingham.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PSC is recommending activists in Bristol catch the train. All the protest details on the PSC website<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The International Conference Against War, organised by Stop The War (STW) last month<\/a>, called for an international day of action for Palestine on 10 October. This will include a national demonstration in Britain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the conference also called for mobilisations against rearmament on 21-22 November.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour Good riddance to Keir Starmer\u2014but keep up the fight for a free Palestine By Socialist Worker journalists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[37,7596,498],"class_list":["post-212496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-israel","tag-labour","tag-palestine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116942198999963784","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}